They’re everywhere…

It seems that every Christmas holiday season, retailers come up with a new decorating trend that everyone wants.

Last year, I think, it was black and white buffalo check table cloths, wrapping paper, ribbon, bows, napkins, etc.

2021 is the year of the table top red vintage pickup with a Christmas tree in back. If you’ve done any in -person shopping, you’ve seen them — from Hobby Lobby to Tractor Supply Co. 

I went online to try to find out why this item has become so popular. The best explanation I found was that it invoked nostalgic memories of classic Christmas past. 

Here’s what I think. A nefarious group of retailers trying to separate money from our wallets meets secretly every year to determine what the hot item will be for the next Christmas decorating season. By February they have started planting seeds. If you see “Christmas in July” sales, start looking for the “next big thing.” Then right after Labor Day, it will start showing up on shelves. By Halloween, the item appears to be breeding like cockroaches everywhere we go. The message is that if you don’t get one to decorate for Christmas, you will be SO unhip.

But last time I looked at a couple of local stores, there were still lots of these things out there — with just a week to go before Christmas. Which brings me to the question of what happens to these items at the end of the season and shelves are starting to be restocked with Easter merchandise?

I think they could all be repainted red, white and blue and the Christmas tree  substituted with a big firecracker to create a Fourth of July decorating theme. Then when there are still lots left over after the Independence Day celebration, they’ll be put back on a boat to China, stored in some giant warehouse, be repainted green and  reintroduced as the next cool thing for Christmas in about eight years.

And the committee working on the Christmas 2022 decorating “must have” item is probably already brainstorming. How about chickens around a manger scene, camping trailers with Christmas trees sprouting from the windows or covered bridges festooned with holiday decorations?

I’d love to hear your ideas. Maybe we can cash in on it. I mean really, isn’t that what Christmas has become?